The purpose of science and technology/engineering education Investigations in science and technology/engineering involve a range of skills, habits of mind, and subject matter knowledge. The purpose of science and technology/engineering education in Massachusetts is to enable students to draw on these skills, habits, and subject matter knowledge for informed participation in the intellectual and civic life of American society, and for further education in these areas if they seek it. The nature of science Science may be described as attempts to give good accounts of the patterns in nature. The result of scientific investigation is an understanding of natural processes. Scientific explanations are always subject to change in the face of new evidence. Ideas with the most durable explanatory power become established theories or are codified as laws of nature. Overall, the key criterion of science is that it provides a clear, rational, and succinct account of a pattern in nature. This account must be based on data gathering and analysis and other evidence obtained through direct observations or experiments, reflect inferences that are broadly shared and communicated, and be accompanied by a model that offers a naturalistic explanation expressed in conceptual, mathematical, and/or mechanical terms. Here are some everyday examples of patterns seen in nature: ❚ The sun appears to move each day from the eastern horizon to the western horizon. ❚ Virtually all objects released near the surface of the earth sooner or later fall to the ground. ❚ Parents and their offspring are similar, e.g., lobsters produce lobsters, not cats. ❚ Green is the predominant color of most plants. ❚ Some objects float while others sink. ❚ Fire yields heat. ❚ Weather in North America generally moves from west to east. ❚ Many organisms that once inhabited the earth no longer do so. It is beyond the scope of this document to examine the scientific accounts of these patterns. Some are well known, such as that the rotation of the earth on its axis gives rise to the apparent travel of the sun across the sky, or that fire is a transfer of energy from one form Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework May 2001 to another. Others, like buoyancy or the cause of extinction, require subtle and sometimes complex accounts. These patterns, and many others, are the puzzles that scientists attempt to explain.
Investigations in science and technology/engineering involve a range of skills, habits of mind, and subject matter knowledge. The purpose of science and technology/engineering education in Massachusetts is to enable students to draw on these skills, habits, and subject matter knowledge for informed participation in the intellectual and civic life of American society, and for further education in these areas if they seek it.
The nature of science
Science may be described as attempts to give good accounts of the patterns in nature. The result of scientific investigation is an understanding of natural processes. Scientific explanations are always subject to change in the face of new evidence. Ideas with the most durable explanatory power become established theories or are codified as laws of nature. Overall, the key criterion of science is that it provides a clear, rational, and succinct account of a pattern in nature. This account must be based on data gathering and analysis and other evidence obtained through direct observations or experiments, reflect inferences that are broadly shared and communicated, and be accompanied by a model that offers a naturalistic explanation expressed in conceptual, mathematical, and/or mechanical terms. Here are some everyday examples of patterns seen in nature:
❚ The sun appears to move each day from the eastern horizon to the western horizon.
❚ Virtually all objects released near the surface of the earth sooner or later fall to the ground.
❚ Parents and their offspring are similar, e.g., lobsters produce lobsters, not cats.
❚ Green is the predominant color of most plants.
❚ Some objects float while others sink.
❚ Fire yields heat.
❚ Weather in North America generally moves from west to east.
❚ Many organisms that once inhabited the earth no longer do so.
It is beyond the scope of this document to examine the scientific accounts of these patterns. Some are well known, such as that the rotation of the earth on its axis gives rise to the apparent travel of the sun across the sky, or that fire is a transfer of energy from one form
Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework May 2001
to another. Others, like buoyancy or the cause of extinction, require subtle and sometimes complex accounts. These patterns, and many others, are the puzzles that scientists attempt to explain.